Sixty seconds a day.
Five minutes a week.
Filling TE-DWC-01 on paper or on your phone, and how the trend is read once it is filled.
Three things, then never again
- 1Write your name, your coach, the start date and the scale you will use (make, and where it stands). That scale, that spot, for 28 days.
- 2Tick the phase — loss, gain or maintain. Your coach writes the target change per week as % of body mass (for example −0.7). If it is blank, the ruler’s zones apply.
- 3After your first reading, the Day-1 weight becomes the start line of the signal chart, with +1, +2, −1 and −2 kg above and below (84.6 → 85.6, 86.6, 83.6, 82.6). On the phone card this happens by itself.
Same conditions, one number
- 1Keep the five conditions: wake, toilet first, nothing in, same scale and spot, minimal clothing, still and centred.
- 2Write the date and the reading to 0.1 kg in today’s box.
- 3Tick any flag that applied in the last 24 hours — S sodium-heavy meal, T hard session, Z sleep under 6 h, A alcohol, C menstrual cycle, V travel, I illness.
- 4Put a dot on the signal chart: today’s column, at the height of the reading. (The phone card plots it for you.)
- 5Missed the morning? Leave the box empty. Do not estimate, and do not weigh later in the day to catch up — that reading belongs to a different set of conditions.
The mean is the measurement
- 1Add the week’s readings and divide by the number you took. Fewer than four readings: no mean, no decision that week. Write the mean to two decimals in the amber box.
- 2From week 2: change = this mean − last mean, in kg. Percentage = change ÷ last mean × 100. Write both.
- 3Mark the mean on the chart at mid-week (day 4, 11, 18, 25) as a ringed dot, and join the rings. That line is the trend.
- 4Find the percentage on the ruler. Read the zone, then the three rules beneath it.
Weather, climate, and one decision
Daily readings move by 1–2 % of body mass from water, glycogen, sodium and gut contents. Inside the ±1 kg noise zone, nothing has happened. A dot outside the band on a flagged day is explained; on an unflagged day it is watched, not acted on.
Seven readings averaged cancel most of the noise; the rings joined week to week are the only line that means anything. Flagged days stay in the mean — it is built to absorb them. A week with three or more flags is read with caution; a week with fewer than four readings is not read at all.
Loss phase: −0.5 to −1.0 % per week is on target — change nothing. Between −0.5 and 0 is slow — hold two weeks, then change one variable. Faster than −1.0 % for two weeks is too fast — muscle and performance are at risk; review food, sleep and load with your coach. Gain phase: +0.25 to +0.5 % is on target; faster is mostly fat. Maintain: within ±0.5 %.
A single week against the plan is noise until the next week confirms it. Two weeks running: change one thing — food, steps, sleep or training load — never all four, or the next four weeks cannot tell you what worked.
Check the flags first: sodium, cycle, travel, a new training block. Two consecutive unflagged rises, and the rule above applies.
Type it, tap it, send it
The phone card fills itself: type the reading in today’s row, tap the flags, and the means, the change, the chart and the ruler are worked out at once. If you use the Daily Check app, Fill from app copies your readings onto the card day by day from the start date.
Every seventh day, send the card to your coach: Print / PDF gives the A4 card, Share sends the four weekly means as text. On paper, a photo of the card is enough — the amber column carries everything the coach needs.
What each seventh day gives you
- Day 1
Set up. The first reading becomes the start line on the chart.
- Day 7
First mean. Baseline only — nothing to compare, no decision.
- Day 14
Second mean. First change in kg and %, first zone on the ruler.
- Day 21
Third mean. Two decision weeks now exist — a pattern can be trusted.
- Day 28
Fourth mean. Review with the coach; the last mean starts the next card.
Four numbers that matter. One decision a week.
A worked example — not a real client — read the way a coach reads it. Open it on the card to see every mark in place.
- 1Set-up. Loss phase, target −0.7 % per week, scale named, start weight 84.6 kg on the chart axis with the +1, +2, −1 and −2 kg lines.
- 2Daily entries. Date, reading to 0.1 kg, flags ticked that morning. Nothing else is written on a weekday.
- 3Day 9. 84.3 after 83.6 — a 0.7 kg jump with sodium flagged. Inside the band, explained, ignored. It stays in the mean.
- 4Day 17. Missed and left blank. Week 3 is averaged over six readings; still above the four-reading minimum, so it still gives a decision.
- 5Means and change. 84.24 → 83.57 → 83.10 → 82.83; change −0.67, −0.47, −0.27 kg; −0.80 %, −0.56 %, −0.32 %.
- 6The chart. Twenty-seven dots wander inside the band, some above the previous day, some below. The four rings — the means — fall in a steady line. That line is the only thing being managed.
- 7The decision. Weeks 2 and 3 land in the loss-target zone — change nothing. Week 4 is slow (−0.32 %) — hold; if week 5 is also slow, change one variable with the coach. Nothing was changed on the strength of a single reading at any point.
| Week | D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | n | 7-day mean | Δ kg | Δ % | Zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 84.6 | 84.9T | 84.2 | 84.0 | 84.4T Z | 83.9 | 83.7 | 7 | 84.24 | — | — | baseline |
| Week 2 | 83.9 | 83.6S | 84.3 | 83.4 | 83.5 | 83.0 | 83.3 | 7 | 83.57 | −0.67 | −0.80 % | loss target |
| Week 3 | 83.6 | 83.1 | — | 83.0 | 83.4T | 82.8 | 82.7 | 6 | 83.10 | −0.47 | −0.56 % | loss target |
| Week 4 | 83.3A S | 83.5S | 82.9 | 82.6 | 82.8 | 82.4 | 82.3 | 7 | 82.83 | −0.27 | −0.32 % | hold — slow |
| Four weeks | 84.24 → 82.83 | 27 | −1.41 kg | −1.67 % | −0.56 % / wk | |||||||
Mean = sum of the readings taken ÷ their number (week 3 has six: day 17 was missed). Δ kg = this mean − last mean. Δ % = Δ kg ÷ last mean × 100. Zones are read off the ruler on the card; superscript letters are the flags ticked that morning.
What the coach sees after 28 days
Four means are the client’s real trajectory. The review reads them in this order: total change, mean weekly rate, weeks on target, recurring flags — then the next card starts from the last mean, not from the last reading.